Sustainability Channel

CONFERENCE AT THE CHAMBER ON THE BOOK 'PIRELLI – STORIES OF WORK'

“In many ways, Pirelli is one of the most prestigious symbols of Italian industry“. With these words, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Gianfranco Fini, opened “Stories and actualities of work in the experience of a great Italian company”, a conference that took place Wednesday afternoon at Palazzo Montecitorio, Rome, with the participation of the Honourable Sergio Cofferati, economist Jean Paul Fitoussi, the Minister of the Economy Giulio Tremonti and the chairman of the Pirelli Group, Marco Tronchetti Provera.

The conference, in which members of the political, union, culture and entrepreneurial worlds took part at the invitation of the President of the Chamber, was born of the recent publication of “PIRELLI – STORIES OF WORK. Men, machines and ideas”, a book produced by Pirelli and published by Mondadori, which covers 136 years of the company’s history, recounting the social and economic reality of the country.

‘Internationalisation’, ‘technological innovation’ and ‘moral stature’, the values of Pirelli on which President Fini paused in his introductory speech, before handing over to Marco Tronchetti Provera, chairman of the Pirelli Group, who reminded the audience at the Sala della Regina that ‘passion’, ‘sense of belonging’ and ‘competence’ have enabled Pirelli to continue to be a bearer of innovation over time.

Of an anthropological, economic and social type, the contribution of Jean Paul Fitoussi, author of one of the three prefaces of the book (the others were by the writer  Erri De Luca and Antonio Calabrò, Pirelli’s director of Institutional Affairs and External Relations), remarked on how “one cannot imagine the future of the world without the wheel“, because “the wheel is an indispensable instrument that enables man to move about, like glasses are to reading”.

“An unusual book, particularly courageous, also of great usefulness“, was the comment of Sergio Cofferati, who in his speech recalled Leopoldo Pirelli as one of the most avant garde contributors to the debate on the social conflicts of industrial civilisation.

Lastly, the remarks of the Minister of the Economy, Giulio Tremonti, who directed the attention of the audience to the importance of the patrimonial account in evaluating a company, an account that gives back the historic patrimony of a company, ‘photographing’ in that way a system of values and the values themselves that its financial account does not contemplate. A sophisticated metaphor for administrators, for whom the Minister recalled how ‘competence and prudence’ are at the basis of a successful management.

The conference concluded with the wish, on the part by President Gianfranco Fini, for at least another 136 years of life for Pirelli.
An extremely important afternoon for the Group which, in the splendour of the Sala della Regina, gave voice to the work of all the Pirelliani, advocates of a model history for the economy, but also for the social and cultural life of Italy and the world.

PIRELLI FOUNDATION INAUGURATED SOON

Its task will be to promote and disseminate the knowledge contained in the cultural, historic and contemporary patrimony of the Group, which is an integral part of the entrepreneurial history, social, ideas and trends of Italy.

The Pirelli Foundation was officially established some months ago to fulfil the wishes of Pirelli & C. SpA, Pirelli Tyre, Pirelli RE and the Pirelli family and its own offices are soon to be inaugurated at Bicocca.

Building 134, at which reconstruction work supervised by Pirelli RE will be completed in June, will host the newborn Foundation, starting with the Historic Archives, which hold all the rearranged, restored and catalogued material that constitutes the history of Pirelli. A rich and composite patrimony, from the illustrations and works of Marcello Dudovich of the early 20th century to the 131 editions of Rivista Pirelli, which were published between 1948 and 1972 with illustrious contributions from writers including Montale, Saba, Gadda and Eco, as well as commercial and financial documents, films, photographs, publicity posters etc.

In the building, which will be open in the future to experts and private citizens, there will also be a room for consultation, another for video and a space for meetings, because the Foundation certainly wants it to be an activity of memory enhancement, but also that it should carry out a constructive role in the present through the organisation of initiatives based on themes associated with the culture of business (exhibitions, publications, seminars, competitions…)

The Pirelli Foundation is presided over by Marco Tronchetti Provera, Chairman of the Pirelli Group, and directed by Antonio Calabrò, Director of Institutional Affairs and External Relations. Members of the Board of Directors are Alberto Pirelli, Vice-President Pirelli Group, Carlo Puri Negri, Vice-President of the Pirelli Group and Managing Director of Pirelli RE, Francesco Gori, Managing Director and Director General of Pirelli Tyre, Claudio De Conto, Operative Director General of the Pirelli Group and Managing Director, Finance of Pirelli RE.

The Honorary President is Cecilia Pirelli.

PIRELLI FOR EDUCATION PAR EXCELLENCE

The just created Association for Education of Excellence is a non-profit making organisation which has the task of “promoting and favouring education initiatives of excellence in relation to the needs and prospects of the world of work, research and business”.

Its first initiative is the establishment of the School of High Education for Management.

Convinced that, also in periods of crisis, it is necessary to invest in the future, the three foundations have decided to respond to the need for better education for the young with concrete initiatives, giving their backing to quality and openness to innovation. It is from that premise that the School of High Education for Management has been established, in collaboration with the Collège des Ingénieurs, one of the most authoritative European institutions in the field of management education.

The School of High Education for Management will be aimed at young graduates in engineering and in scientific and economics disciplines (15 the first year, 40 at full capacity) offering them a full-time Masters Degree in Business Administration based on four months of education in-hall and six months of action training in a company: the young people will join client companies as junior consultants and will work on projects of strategic interest.

The Masters Degree will be free of cost for course members, who will be selected exclusively on the basis of merit and preparation (not for income), who will be paid, as a result of a contractual engagement that will terminate at the end of the duration of the period of education: that distinguishes the initiative from other similar undertakings.
The start of the courses is scheduled for September 2009; in-hall education (in the English language) will take place in part together with lecturers and the students of the Collège des Ingénieurs in the offices of Paris, Stuttgart and San Gallo, in part in the offices in Turin with lecturers from the Italian polytechnics and universities and from the world of business.
Those who participated in the press presentation of the school were John Elkann, vice-president of the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation, Riccardo Garrone, president of the Edoardo Garrone Foundation, Antonio Calabrò, director of the Pirelli Foundation and Philippe Mahrer, president of the Association du Collège des Ingénieurs. Gustavo Bracco, head of the school, presented the fundamental principals of the initiative.